• Summary:
In the early part of the twentieth century daily milk supplies in Johannesburg
came from a proliferation of small-scale 'informal'
dairies as well as from a few large-scale dairies. Spurred on by a
growing concern for high standards of hygiene in general the municipality
began to police the production of milk more strictly. The
effect was to cause an increase in the production costs of the largescale
dairies which in turn viewed both the officials and the smallscale
producers as 'enemies'. In the ensuing struggle a set of municipal
by-laws was produced which had the effect of closing down the
small-scale dairies because their owners were unable to meet the
building standards imposed on them rather than because they were
producing unhygienic milk. Unlike the demise of other pettyproduction
activities it was white and not black producers who were
most affected.